UK training expert praises local firefighters
– says Guyana has a ‘well disciplined, organised and very professional fire service’
GUYANA Fire Service (GFS) officers have been highly praised for their commitment to duty and efficient capability in containing the raging inferno at Barrack and High Streets, Kingston, Georgetown, on Easter Monday. The firefighters averted a greater catastrophe in the neighbourhood where several diplomatic missions and commercial entities are located.
The commendation was from visiting Station Officer and operational firefighter in the United Kingdom (UK), Mr. Kevin Adcock, who is currently in Guyana to conduct a two weeks training course for GFS ranks.
Adcock was delivering brief remarks at the opening session in GFS, Stabroek headquarters yesterday after witnessing the performance of the firefighters who, despite limitations, successfully contained the blaze to a single building, where buildings are in close proximity to each other.
He said: “I had the opportunity to visit the area of the Kingston fire. In my professional opinion, the performance of the firemen was exemplary. I don’t think that my officers, using the most up-to-date, modern, highly trained, well-appointed services in the world would have (done) much better.”
Having already made an assessment of prevailing weather conditions and what is at the disposal of the local fire fighters, Adcock observed:  “Your task here, to put out fires within Georgetown, is a difficult one and I don’t envy you in any way, shape or form.”

According to him, the Guyanese are faced with what he termed every professional firefighter’s worst nightmare.
“You have dried timber buildings, strong winds, a lack of reliable water supply, something that I can’t imagine, from my experience, in the UK,” he remarked.

Comparing the local situation to what obtains in the UK, Adcock said there, it is possible to find a serviceable hydrant, giving almost unlimited supplies of water within every 200 metres.

Against that backdrop, he concluded that, from what he has seen so far, Guyana has a well disciplined, organised and very professional fire service and he sees his job, over the next two weeks, as being to fine tune a well oiled machine.

Adcock said he looks forward to taking what he refers to as a “fine body of men and women and imparting, to them, the most up-to-date and modern methods of firefighting operations.”

But looking ahead, he hinted that there will be some good times and some hard times. “There will be some hard work but there will be fun, too.
“And that is just about the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship,” Adcock added.
He thanked Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee, Chief Fire Officer Marlon Gentle and other GFS officials for affording him the opportunity of coming to Guyana and share some of his skills, knowledge and experience as an operational firefighter in the UK Fire and Rescue Service.